Monday, May 28, 2018

The vegan superstars responsible for the annual Sacramento Vegan Chef Challenge are at it again! This time, they're bringing us the Great Sacramento Vegan Burger Battle, a month-long event in which local restaurants will pull out all the stops to offer the best vegan burger they can create. There will be five different categories of burgers: Beyond Burger, Impossible Burger, house-made vegan burger, Portobello burger, and oil-free vegan burger. All condiments, buns, and toppings will be vegan, and vegan side dishes will be available as well.The Great Sacramento Vegan Burger Battle will run from June 1st to June 30th, and the following restaurants and/or chefs will be participating:

I plan to try as many burgers as I can, and I will blog about them as I go. However, I'm going to have family visiting during this time and I'll be on the road for a few days, so I won't be able to get to as many of these restaurants as I'd like. If you find any burgers that you particularly like, please let me know!

More information about the Great Sacramento Vegan Burger Battle is available at the Sacramento Vegan Chef Challenge website or Facebook page:

Monday, May 21, 2018

I had lunch a few days ago at Golden Road Brewing, which just opened in Midtown on May 10th. It's been panned by local beer aficionados because it's a corporate brewery owned by Budweiser in a city that prides itself on its many locally-brewed craft beers.

I wasn't there for the beer, however. I was there for the vegan food, and there was lots of it! The food menu lists several items that are either vegan or can be made vegan, including three kinds of tacos (fried avocado, drunken zucchini, and papas bravas), three salads (Caesar, Mexican chopped salad, and summer green salad), and five other items (asada fries, chips and guacamole, street corn, avocado fries, and buffalo cauliflower).

I decided to make a lunch out of a couple of small plates -- the avocado fries and the buffalo cauliflower. The avocado fries consisted of an avocado cut into fourths, dipped in beer batter, and fried. They were served with a chipotle sauce that was good, but pretty spicy. The buffalo cauliflower was also dipped in a beer batter before being fried, then served with a vegan dill ranch sauce. It was really, really good!

Golden Road even offers a dessert that can be veganized -- the "Get up offa that brownie." It's a house-made beer brownie with chocolate sauce and a strawberry on top. Great way to top off my lunch!

Golden Road Brewing is located at 1830 L Street, and their phone number is 916-382-9445. It's one of four Golden Road locations throughout the state, so it doesn't have a website or Facebook page of its own. However, the company's website address is http://goldenroad.la/home, and their Facebook page can be found at https://www.facebook.com/goldenroadbrew/. The Sacramento location is open Sunday through Wednesday from 11:00 a.m. to midnight, and Thursday through Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m.

Monday, May 14, 2018

This week's dining adventure was a visit to Shabu Pub, a hot pot restaurant in the Land Park neighborhood. It opened in 2016 in the space previously occupied by Blockbuster Video, but this was the first time I'd tried it.

Shabu is a style of cooking that involves dipping a variety of ingredients in a boiling broth, similar to a fondue. If you go to dinner at Shabu Pub, you would order a large pot of broth, which would be placed on a burner in the middle of your table. The pot has two sections, so if you're dining with a friend, you can have two different broths. The vegan options are either the miso or the kimchi broth. The server also mentioned a third vegan broth that isn't on the menu, which consisted of water, salt, onions, seaweed, and I don't know what all.

Then you choose the assortment of ingredients you want to cook in the broth. For vegans, there is a vegetable assortment. The specific vegetables may vary, but the server can probably tell you what's available. There's also an add-on menu, where you can choose specific vegetables or tofu for an additional cost.

That's what happens if you go for dinner. I, however, was there for lunch, when Shabu Pub offers a mini pot, an individual pot of broth that comes to the table with its own little burner and with the vegetable assortment already in the pot. I ordered the miso broth, and the vegetable assortment included tofu, udon noodles, cauliflower, zucchini, squash, asparagus, tomatoes, mushrooms, lotus root, green beans, cabbage, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting. It was quite a flavorful and satisfying lunch!

Shabu Pub is located at 4400 Freeport Boulevard, and their phone number is 916-736-1268. They don't seem to have a website, but their Facebook page can be found at https://www.facebook.com/shabupubsacramento/. The restaurant is open for lunch Monday through Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., and for dinner Sunday through Wednesday from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday from 4:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

Monday, May 7, 2018

I met my friend Deborah for lunch the other day at Meet & Eat in the Land Park neighborhood. I had eaten there before, and hadn't found it to be particularly vegan-friendly, but thought I'd give it another chance.

I asked about a few different dishes before deciding on the spicy veggie spaghetti, which is vegan if you order it without the Parmesan, and if you skip the garlic bread that would normally accompany it. The dish consisted of spaghetti tossed with a nice variety of vegetables and chili oil, then topped with avocado slices and raw pumpkin seeds. It was very good and I would order it again.

I went back for lunch a couple of days later with my husband Phil. This time, I ordered the Buddha Bar tacos, which are vegan if you get them without the feta cheese. They were also very good -- corn tortillas filled with roasted sweet potato, arugula, guacamole, pico de gallo, radishes, pumpkin seeds, and micro herbs.

I've found that Meet & Eat and its sister restaurant in Curtis Park, Café Dantorels, are very vegetarian-friendly, but it's not always easy to veganize their vegetarian dishes. One thing that sounded interesting on the Meet & Eat menu, for example, was a tofu burger. The menu didn't list any ingredients that sounded particularly problematic, but I thought I'd ask the server if it was vegan, just to be on the safe side. She checked with the kitchen and came back to tell me the onions, the barbecue sauce, and the bun weren't vegan. Similarly, I noticed one day recently that Café Dantorels was offering the Impossible Burger, but the mayo, cheese, and bun weren't vegan. I could live without the mayo and the cheese, but I sent a message asking why on earth they didn't have a vegan bun to go with their vegan burger. They responded that they didn't have the storage capacity to carry vegan bread, but I could always order the burger wrapped in a lettuce leaf. Umm, no.

The bottom line is that it's entirely possible to get a lovely vegan meal at both Meet & Eat and Café Dantorels, but you have to be very careful. Don't assume that a dish is vegan based on the menu description, and be prepared to ask questions.